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📂 Category: Apps,Social,Startups,gen alpha,iOS apps,locket,social networking
📌 Key idea:
Locket, a private social networking app for friends, has scored a win with Gen Alpha users after launching its latest feature, Rollcall.
The app, which lets friends share photos that then appear in home screen widgets, first reached the top of the App Store charts in early 2022 by leveraging Apple’s widget system to form the foundation of its social network. Instead of sending updates via push notifications, the app widget will refresh to show your friends’ newly posted photos. This, in turn, will drive engagement back into the app, prompting users to share their own photos in return.
Locket’s Rollcall feature takes a similar approach by turning Apple’s platform features into social networking tools, explains Locket CEO Matt Moss. Moss, a former student grant winner at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), realizes that new formats can help attract users and draw people in.
Rollcall prompts users to share their favorite photos from the past week, and takes advantage of an iOS feature called Live Activities. This allows the app to take advantage of the iPhone lock screen to attract users’ attention. Introduced in iOS 18, Live Activities allows iOS apps to provide frequent information updates in glanceable locations like the Lock screen and the Dynamic Island (the black bar at the top of the screen).
Apple originally envisioned Live Activities as a way for apps with real-time information to update their users — for example, with information about an Uber ride or pizza delivery. However, some apps have used this technology in unique ways, like adding a virtual pet frolicking on the dynamic island, or displaying the lyrics of the song you’re listening to in real time on your lock screen.
However, for Locket, live activities have become the modern version of push notification.
“Every Sunday, we’ll take over your lock screen and you’ll get this cool live activity that appears right on your iPhone’s home page,” Moss said. “It’s like a piece [as it’s] “Using Apple technology to get in front of people and then allow you to share those moments that you wouldn’t otherwise have,” he told TechCrunch in an interview in the halls of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference last week.
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Using technology in this way has already proven successful for Locket, which has more than 91 million lifetime installs across iOS and Android, according to Appfigures estimates. In the first week of Rollcall, Locket saw more than 1 million shares paid for the feature, the company said.
Additionally, Moss said more than 25% of the app’s active users now post a phone call each week.
“The live activity attracts people a lot more,” Moss said. “It’s fun, because when your friends participate, they feel like we’re all doing it together.”
Nearly 80% of Rollcall’s initial active users are classified as Gen Alpha.
The founder noted that there are some differences between how Gen Alpha and Gen Z use Locket.
“I think the big difference is… [being] Companion piece versus main piece. We have a lot of users now [for whom] Moss explained that Locket is like their main way of communicating with their friends. “Sending photos directly. Sharing photos with 10 or 20 of their best friends. I think that made a big difference for us,” he added.
With Rollcall gaining significant traction, the company is now exploring how to use the feature as a launching pad for other experiences beyond photos. For example, Moss says adding video support is an obvious next step, but he’s also thinking about how to incorporate things like music, favorite places you’ve been, or prompts designed to help you remember things that happened during the week.
Although Locket has no plans to support photos or videos generated by artificial intelligence, such as Sora or Meta AI, the company is studying how to use AI in other ways — such as creating photo collages or stitching together photo memories.
“Even though these things may consume a lot of attention, there’s something very fundamental and fundamental about connecting and connecting with real people in the world. There’s always going to be a role for that, and there’s always going to be demand on the part of people,” Moss said, referring to AI applications.
The company is also thinking about how Locket can turn users’ virtual connections with friends into more real-life touchpoints — even if it’s as simple as reminding users to call or text a friend.
“I think for us it’s always been more like: How can we use these things to really help people connect, rather than just being, you know, a short-term fun experience,” he said. [that] “It could actually be a huge strength in the long run — being that place where only people you already know are there,” Moss said.
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